Coopers Priming Sugar Use By Date

[Lucas2411]

G'day guys,

Got a Coopers Micro Brew kit for Chrissy and have been reading up on brewing, daily. Once i get into a hobby I get riiight into it. All the talk of "my mate tried to make it and it was crap." makes me want to make a good homebrew all the more!

My brother did a few batches around 2004 and has some left over supplies - Caps, A capper, some sodium metabisulfite and some priming tablets.


I've heard that sodium met is garbage and I'd be better of just sticking to bleach and boiling water before getting into something like Sodium Precarbonate for Sanitising. Agree?

What I'm curious about is the priming sugars. The use by date is 2006 but do you think they could still be used? I'm on an extreme budget at the moment after losing the last 2 months of a contact prematurely so want to salvage any gear I can find.

Looking forward to learning from you guys and hopefully brewing up something worth sharing with the family. :icon_chickcheers:

 

[Cube]

Mate - I think coles 1 kg sugar is 1.99 or cheaper. Ditch the priming lollies.

Try not to skimp and save to make the cheapest beer possible. You will regret it big time. A extra $5 or 10 dollars for a 23L brew is well worth it. Trust me, the difference between EVEN a kit and kilo brew of $15 ( or god forbid under ) compared to say $25 is huge. This includes a better yeast, some grain like carapils, BE2 for example instead of just sugar or dex ( even better still another can of light malt extract ).

Thinking about it, you may want to check out the toucan or twocan thread. Using two lagers or a lager and a draught can for example with some grains and hops can make really good beer for about the same price as a kit and kilo.

 

[Lucas2411]

Mate - I think coles 1 kg sugar is 1.99 or cheaper. Ditch the priming lollies.

Try not to skimp and save to make the cheapest beer possible. You will regret it big time. A extra $5 or 10 dollars for a 23L brew is well worth it. Trust me, the difference between EVEN a kit and kilo brew of $15 ( or god forbid under ) compared to say $25 is huge. This includes a better yeast, some grain like carapils, BE2 for example instead of just sugar or dex ( even better still another can of light malt extract ).

Thinking about it, you may want to check out the toucan or twocan thread. Using two lagers or a lager and a draught can for example with some grains and hops can make really good beer for about the same price as a kit and kilo.

Thanks for the reply Cube.

So priming with ordinary table sugar produces good results but I've gathered that you should never use it for the primary fermentation, correct?

Can you recommend any kits around the 25 dollar mark that you mentioned?

Checking out the toucan method now. Thanks!

 

[Cube]

Hi. Yeah perfect for priming ( grab a little measuring tool from supermarket isle for a few bucks. One end tallies the other stubs ). While you are there grab a couple of kit cans. Try and keep away from homebrand kits. Right now my woolies seem to be reducing the tooheys line at my local. $7.00 a can of tooheys lager. Grab two of them for a toucan and some hops and you should have a great start to a toucan beer. 'Splash out' some more and grab a Coopers APA can and use that with a tooheys lager. Roughly $20 bucks for fermentables and $5.00 for US05 yeast and left over few bucks for some hops tea bag. Ferment at 18 Deg.

Whilst the beer is fermenting read up on reusing the yeast trub over and over. Saves $5.00 a brew and get a free brew every 5 brews

Don't use ordinary sugar for a fermentable. At the worst use Coopers BE1 or BE2. Better still a kilo of light dry malt or another tin of light malt extract ( kinda what you are doing with a toucan anyway )

Before you know it and most likely after a few toucans you are basically extract brewing IF you replace the two kit cans with two cans of light malt (or dark...whatever you want to make ) add some steeping grains and hops to the boil ( boiling the steeped liquid to steralise it ) and wammo, better beer by a long long shot over kits and toucans.

 

[aaronR]

Mate - I think coles 1 kg sugar is 1.99 or cheaper. Ditch the priming lollies.

Try not to skimp and save to make the cheapest beer possible. You will regret it big time. A extra $5 or 10 dollars for a 23L brew is well worth it. Trust me, the difference between EVEN a kit and kilo brew of $15 ( or god forbid under ) compared to say $25 is huge. This includes a better yeast, some grain like carapils, BE2 for example instead of just sugar or dex ( even better still another can of light malt extract ).

Thinking about it, you may want to check out the toucan or twocan thread. Using two lagers or a lager and a draught can for example with some grains and hops can make really good beer for about the same price as a kit and kilo.

hi cube

its a bit off the topic but im looking at moving from priming with lollies to bulk priming as you have mentioned above..

im currently brewing a ginger beer and am thinking of priming with honey or golden syrup. ive have been looking at a couple of calculators and havent been able to find one that takes these sort of ingrediants into account.

do you have any sites / hints youy could recommend???

any help would be appreciated

cheers aaron

 

[manticle]

This one has honey: http://hbd.org/cgi-bin/recipator/recipator/carbonation.html

 

[aaronR]

This one has honey: http://hbd.org/cgi-bin/recipator/recipator/carbonation.html

cheers thanks for that one manticle.

im new to the forum and just learning the ropes.

aaron